Peak Imaging Lab Closed

[Mike Crawford]

Two bigger labs that immediately spring to mind are Bayeaux and A&M - both do dip/dunk E-6/C-41/B&W.

Labyrinth and the Artful Dodgers both run C-41 dip/dunk - and do optical (i.e. enlarger) RA-4 printing.

Always sad to see a lab closing, best wishes to the people at Peak. Somehow I've survived for nearly 30 years doing B&W. Certainly for London professional labs offering C41 / Optical printing, Artful Dodgers, Labytrith and Rapid Eye come very recommended by clients and friends who use them. And all nice people at these labs which is always a bonus!
https://artfuldodgersimaging.co.uk
www.labyrinthphotographic.co.uk
www.rapideye.uk.com

For E6, I don't know him myself, (but am hoping to meet sometime soon as he's a friend of a friend), is John Salim in Southend. Have heard very good things about his E6 processing. www.johnsalimphotographic.co.uk

 

[BMbikerider]

On my very small scale I switched to Fuji Hunt for C-41 when Kodak became unavailable, and my experience so far with Bellini for E6 (5 litre kit) has been positive, so chemistry is available in the current market place, i.e not from pre-COVID stock piles.

for anyone needing info on the Fuji products reading this page, here is a useful link:

Supporting Documents | Fujifilm [United Kingdom]

www.fujifilm.com

I have recently changed over to Fuji Hunt for C41 developing. So far I have processed 4 films 2 x 120 and 2 x 35mm and to be perfectly honest they are the cleanest and best graduated negatives I have had for a very long time. I was using Digibase before hand and since my dealer stopped or was unable to get the 5 litre kits I changed over to the Fuji. Another difference so I find is the negatives processed in Fuji seem to take quite a bit longer to dry than when I used Digibase. The last bath in both cases was the provided stabiliser.

I have also gone over to Fuji for RA4 As expected the filtration changed markedly, but now I have a little bit more experience using it it is getting better (Until the developer bath became contaminated somehow. the developer was replaced and the odd cyan colour cast was a thing of the past).

 

[Tom Kershaw]

Always sad to see a lab closing, best wishes to the people at Peak. Somehow I've survived for nearly 30 years doing B&W. Certainly for London professional labs offering C41 / Optical printing, Artful Dodgers, Labytrith and Rapid Eye come very recommended by clients and friends who use them. And all nice people at these labs which is always a bonus!
https://artfuldodgersimaging.co.uk
www.labyrinthphotographic.co.uk
www.rapideye.uk.com

For E6, I don't know him myself, (but am hoping to meet sometime soon as he's a friend of a friend), is John Salim in Southend. Have heard very good things about his E6 processing. www.johnsalimphotographic.co.uk

Mike,

I often wonder how large the market for processing and printing services is. I guess the London market is probably distinct compared to the provinces due to much greater local demand, density of service providers etc?

 

[Mike Crawford]

Mike,

I often wonder how large the market for processing and printing services is. I guess the London market is probably distinct compared to the provinces due to much greater local demand, density of service providers etc?

Good point Tom. Though I think there was maybe somewhere between 100-200 professional labs in London when I first started working in 1984, and now there are.... not a great deal! I was in Artful Dodgers last week seeing traditional retoucher Kevin O'Niell who is based there, and they seemed to have loads of C41 film coming in from professional clients all the time.

However, there are a number of labs opening up around the country offering dev and scan (and often print), which do well from mail order particularly from people newer to analogue, often helped by good social media presence and communications. Plus all the established ones offering mail order. If I had the time and money to invest in such, would look into it myself!

 

[perkeleellinen]

I think there's some growth at the lower end of the market with people setting up with a minilab, often linked to an online photo shop. At the top end of the market, the London labs seem busy. I think Peak sat in between these two levels, a sort of prosumer lab, maybe? Rather like AG.

 

[Tom Kershaw]

I think there's some growth at the lower end of the market with people setting up with a minilab, often linked to an online photo shop. At the top end of the market, the London labs seem busy. I think Peak sat in between these two levels, a sort of prosumer lab, maybe? Rather like AG.

You could have a point there. Hypothetically speaking, If I where running something, I think I'd want to slot somewhere between the top-end places and the more "prosumer" space, offer sheet film processing etc. the low end minilab part of the market must surely be too price sensitive to exist outside another environment, e.g bricks & mortar retail.

Dip & dunk machines alongside Colenta units for RA-4 etc. represent a significant investment and I wonder how the economic factors would compute if these had to be accounted for, rather than representing equipment that had long since paid for itself?

 

[MattKing]

Energy costs are a major concern for big labs. Even the minilabs use a lot of electricity.

 

[GLS]

Energy costs are a major concern for big labs. Even the minilabs use a lot of electricity.

First thing that came to my mind.

 

[MattKing]

Energy costs are a major concern for big labs. Even the minilabs use a lot of electricity.

However, there is also the lesson learned a few years ago by one of the local labs that had been making really good RA4 enlargements from digital files on a machine for small labs , but decided to switch from that process to an inkjet machine because of the energy savings. Sadly, they quickly discovered that the higher costs for the necessary service contract and software support exceeded the energy savings by a significant amount. They also lost my business and the business of others, because while their RA4 prints were wonderful, their higher gamut inkjet prints were kind of meh.

 

[Sirius Glass]

However, there is also the lesson learned a few years ago by one of the local labs that had been making really good RA4 enlargements from digital files on a machine for small labs , but decided to switch from that process to an inkjet machine because of the energy savings. Sadly, they quickly discovered that the higher costs for the necessary service contract and software support exceeded the energy savings by a significant amount. They also lost my business and the business of others, because while their RA4 prints were wonderful, their higher gamut inkjet prints were kind of meh.

Wow in one paragraph you have managed to destroy the value of the word meh.

 

[pentaxuser]

I can't speak for the situation of minilabs in other countries nor in truth do I know enough about the costs of U.K. minilabs but it seems to me that they are in a perfect storm in the U.K. While help will be provided with small business energy costs until next March there is nothing as yet for the period thereafter nor is there any help for domestic householders either beyond March So both household disposable income and business costs have risen alarmingly since the start of the war in the Ukraine. Inflation has risen equally alarmingly and few incomes of wage or salaried groups have seen been rinsing in line with inflation

Additionally mortgage rates are increasing and it is unlikely that local authorities will have any slack in their incomes against which they might set aside funds to cushion small businesses' likely increase in business rates

Hence the perfect storm of a real squeeze in disposable incomes combined with decreasing profitability of minilabs and the fact that film processing expenditure is hardly an unavoidable cost unlike heating and food

It's a bleak outlook with no end in sight as far as I can see even in the medium term of say the next year or 18 months

pentaxuser

 

[Lachlan Young]

Always sad to see a lab closing, best wishes to the people at Peak. Somehow I've survived for nearly 30 years doing B&W. Certainly for London professional labs offering C41 / Optical printing, Artful Dodgers, Labytrith and Rapid Eye come very recommended by clients and friends who use them. And all nice people at these labs which is always a bonus!
https://artfuldodgersimaging.co.uk
www.labyrinthphotographic.co.uk
www.rapideye.uk.com

For E6, I don't know him myself, (but am hoping to meet sometime soon as he's a friend of a friend), is John Salim in Southend. Have heard very good things about his E6 processing. www.johnsalimphotographic.co.uk

Was it Rapid Eye that absorbed BDi/ Brian Dowling's lab a few years back?

 

[Mike Crawford]

Was it Rapid Eye that absorbed BDi/ Brian Dowling's lab a few years back?

Hi Lachlan
I know Brian was working from Rapid Eye a few years ago, as were a couple of other colour printers. I would imagine quite a good arrangement, and not far from were BDI was based on Old Street. I think he might still be working from there, though not sure if he's working full time. (Since Covid, haven't seen so many fellow printers!) When I used to print BW for quite a few fashion photographers, would sometimes see the colour printing Brian was doing. He's such a good colour printer!

 

[foc]

Energy costs are a major concern for big labs. Even the minilabs use a lot of electricity.

For example, a Fuji minilab consisting of a film processor (FP363) and a Frontier print/processor (F7000) both running (not in standby) can consume 7Kw of electricity.

 

[jtk]

When businesses fail it's mostly because they are either badly managed or because their business model is goofy. If a lab does mediocre work it's a management problem. If customers criticize them online (see "meh" comment by somebody above) it tells us that part the problem is due to poor customer targeting.

 

[xtolsniffer]

I ended up here because I was trying to send some C-41 films off for develop and print to Peak Imaging and just got a blank web-page. They were my favourite lab. Great customer service, fast turnaround and excellent quality. Their machine operators really knew their stuff. I have used a range of different labs in the UK, but for me, Peak were the best.

 

[pentaxuser]

I ended up here because I was trying to send some C-41 films off for develop and print to Peak Imaging and just got a blank web-page. They were my favourite lab. Great customer service, fast turnaround and excellent quality. Their machine operators really knew their stuff. I have used a range of different labs in the UK, but for me, Peak were the best.

Yes things have a bad habit of changing rapidly and usually for the worse as you have found in your thread about the state of supply of C41 colour film

pentaxuser

 

[whojammyflip]

I used these folks a couple of years ago, towards the end of Covid lockdown, I went around Padley Gorge, using 120 Ektar. Got some nice scans back, via a FTP site, and the negatives within a week:

Exposure Film Lab | UK Film Processing & Scanning

Professional Film Lab, small independent and in the UK. We specialise in processing, scanning and printing 35mm, 120 and 4x5 colour and B&W film. All in-house, high quality with scan customisation and rush options.

www.exposurefilmlab.com

Normally, I use mono film, so I am no expert, but I was impressed with the colours in the scans. I work with computers, and happily calibrate my monitor with a Spyder, as that is also relevant here.

 

[fri3nd]

Energy costs are quite difficult for the larger labs.

London labs are still busy, Rapid Eye has three dip and dunks now. Brian still pops in every week or so.

Moderne just installed a dip and dunk, ECONE, Bayeux, Labyrinth, Chan all running tecnolabs or refremas and still busy.

Colenta announced a new dip and dunk just a few years back, does kind of blow my mind but I guess someones gotta be buying it.

Future still looks bright for film in my mind; the lower market expanding (thanks to 3.99 dev and scan) helps a bunch. A lot of kids out of uni are paying hundreds for darkroom lessons and starting a career on film + printing in the darkroom. I guess they get "a look" straight out the gate, there are probably other complex social forces that make it desirable.

I just find it beautiful interacting with 100's of years of R&D everytime you touch a neg and exploring humanities models of light and color trying to make a really great print.

The biggest problem facing labs these days is no doubt an inner one. Not many lab owners still understand the market they're in as well as they used to. Its a shame some labs are closing, I guess the big cities are still in bubbles. Well see if its gets to them...

 

[foc]

Dip & dunk processing machines are great, but they need a lot of space. They have a large footprint so not ideal in a retail situation where every square meter is high cost. They can be put in basements or upstairs but it involves a lot and is a pain to move if the lease is up.

I think online is the way to go for a lot of labs catering to medium and/or low end. I agree that some lab owners, usually the older ones (myself included before I retired) find it hard to understand the market today and what young customers want.

New blood = new ideas.